So we are now seven seasons into the existence of the Gold Coast Suns. This means we can compare the team’s performance thus far with that of the defunct Melbourne University Football club who spent seven seasons in the big league from 1908 to 1914.

A fond memory as a young boy in the mid-1980s when staying over at my nanna and pop’s house was looking through the annual Miller’s Guide sporting publications that my pop had accumulated over the years.

Good points Qlder, very good points I must admit. I do think the Suns are great for the competition as opposed to GWS, whom I believe are destined to fail almost as soon as they end up on he lower rungs of the ladder after this run of relative success – but I will “expand” on that in another article soon.

Stewy Dew might be a great coach too. I want the Suns to succeed.

Comparing Gold Coast with University doesn't make for good reading for Suns fans

Thanks for the feedback Matty. I was close to writing a bit on Hafey’s Tigers, especially because he is such a legendary coach. Looking at their sequence, they eventually went back-to-back but had some stumbles along the way including a fifth and sixth finish.

With quite a few of these eras, especially Geelong as I mentioned, IF you swap just one runner-up for a flag, the era goes from great to immortal because it not only adds a flag but also creates a succession of them.

But the key word there is “IF”. And you also don’t know if a club could have handled the extra pressure of shooting for true greatness. Even if Geelong had’ve beaten the Hawks in ’08, it doesn’t mean they would’ve still won in ’09. An off-season of back-slapping vs hunger for atonement.

I certainly believe the VFL and AFL should be considered the same competition. I suppose it is indeed relevant that the AFL-era is roughly when the salary cap was introduced and the league began to go fully professional and national, but it is officially the same competition since 1897 which has naturally evolved.

But I agree you do only have to look at State of Origin results from pre-AFL days to see that sides containing almost entirely WAFL or SANFL players regularly defeated the best of the VFL, at home at least.

Even Adelaide entering the League in 1991, and shell-shocking eventual premiers Hawthorn to the tune of 86 points at Football Park in round one, was an indication of how strong the SANFL was – that inaugural Crows side had only three players with any prior VFL/AFL experience. (Grantley Fielke, Bruce Lindner, and Tony McGuinness).

Good points Col and unknown to many. But you can only go by what the rules were at the time. All clubs knew what might happen in each circumstance.

I also find it most interesting that there have only been two seasons in which a grand final was not played (the first season in 1897 and also 1924 – and Essendon was declared the premier in both as per below, but they still must count.

In the inaugural season 1897, a round-robin finals series was contested with no grand final being played. Essendon was awarded the premiership and Geelong the runners-up.

Again in season 1924, an experimental round-robin finals series was contested with no grand final being played. Essendon was awarded the premiership and Richmond the runners-up.

We certainly won’t know just how good this current Richmond playing group is for a few more years. As for the Magpies of 1990, they certainly had some amazing players like Peter Daicos, Gavin Brown, etc. – there was something special about the team. Darren Milane being killed in a car crash the following year had a deep effect on many players and officials – certainly didn’t help their quest for another flag.

It’s interesting that the 1990 premiership marked the end of the ‘Colliwobbles’. The club even held a burial of a box containing who-knows what under the turf of Victoria Park. But since that day, Collingwood have actually continued their deplorable record in grand finals – losing three out of four, including two in a row to Brisbane in 2002-03.